Sunday, August 4, 2013

Not to fear, we've got adambier

Over the last month or two I've been trying to nail down a special brew to celebrate the birth of HolzBrew Jr. I knew it had to be unique. A few years ago, Mrs. HolzBrew and I traveled to Portland, OR for vacation. If you haven't been, and you like beer, you should go. While in Portland we drank a plethora of flavorful and unique beers. Perhaps the most unique of the bunch were the beers made by Hair of the Dog brewing company. One of their flagship beers, if you can call it that, is an adambier called simply "Adam." There is also a wood-aged version called "Adam from the Wood." This beer left a definite impression on my taste buds, and I thought it fit the bill as the type of beer I'd like to brew for this special occasion.

Adambier is a historic german beer style, which to the best of my knowledge is no longer brewed in Germany. The exact origin of the style is somewhat unknown, however, it is frequently tied to the city of Dortmund. Quite unlike modern german beers, Adambier was a very strong, dark, and oftentimes sour brew that was top fermented and aged in barrels for extended periods of time (e.g. one to four years). The beer is also described as having a smokey aroma and taste.

While doing research for this beer, I came across two recipes, Sean Paxton's and The Mad Fermentationist's, which were both inspired by the Hair of the Dog beer. I decided to do something similar, which I modified somewhat. After reflecting upon my final recipe, its funny that this beer is probably based more upon English ingredients than German ones. However, I think it will definitely be interesting. The aspect of the beer that I think it the most uncertain to me is the smokey part related to the peated smoked malt that I used. I've never made a smoked beer so this is definitely a first. I plan to age this beer in my barrel for awhile. I'll probably draw some out of the barrel in a few months and bottle it and keep the remaining portion in the barrel for up to a year or so.

I also have been struggling with a way to keep primary fermentation temperatures down this summer. My basement routinely maintains a temperature of 71 degrees. This means that during primary fermentation my beers have been maintaining a temperature around 78 degrees due to the heat created during the metabolic process. These beers realistically should be fermented closer to the 68 - 70 degree range. So in order to keep this beer a bit cooler, I decided to place my fermenter in my HLT. I then place several frozen gel packs in the gap between the cooler and fermenter and filled it with water. So far this has worked, my temps were at 68 this morning.